Method of penetrating fibrous material



April 27, 1937. R. M. @Qur-:sawnz METHOD OF' PENETRATING FIBROUSMATERIAL Filed Aug. 22, 1956 Patented Apr. 27, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE METHOD OF PENETRATING FIBROUS MATERIAL Application August 22,1936, Serial No. 97,475

8 Claims.

This invention relates primarily to a method of penetrating or making apassage in a mass of fibrous material, especially fibrous material whichis in a packed condition.

It is often desirable to penetrate a brous mass of material in which theindividual fibers may be haphazardly intertwined. Examples of suchmasses of fibrous material are: bales of cotton, packed cotton waste,stacks or bales of hay, excelsior, yarn, etc. It may be desired to passa rod through such a mass of fibrous material or create a passage forimpregnating the mass or for other reasons. It is practically impossibleto make such a passage or to insert a. rod into a mass of packed cottonwaste, for example, by simply attempting to force either a sharp or adull instrument therein. According to this invention the penetration offibrous material is effected yby advancing through such material ahollow tube or mandrel through which fluid under pressure, such ascompressed air, is forced. The fluid forces the fibers aside and makesit possible to advance the tube or nozzle into the material with greatease. v

It is an object of this invention to provide a method of penetrating amass of fibrous material.

It is another object of this invention to provide a method for makingpassages or recesses within a mass of fibrous material.

It is another object to utilize the above identied method in providing anew method of making filters.

It is also an object of this invention to utilize the above method inproviding a new method for impregnating baled materials.

Other objects will become apparent from the specification and theappended claims.

For a better understanding of this invention attention is directed tothe accompanying figures in which:

Fig. 1 is a. vertical, sectional view of a container filled with fibrousmaterial, and illustrates the difiiculty of forcing a passagetherethrough;

Fig. 2 is a similar view illustrating a step in the method ofpenetrating a fibrous mass in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 3 is a vview similar to Fig. 2 showing the nozzle removed from therecess;

Fig. 4 is a View similar to Fig. 2 showing a temporary filler in therecess;

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view showing a filter made in accordancewith this invention; and

Fig. 6 illustrates the application of this in- (Cl. 21o-204) vention tothe impregnation of baled fibrous material.

While it is clear that this method is applicable to a wide variety offibrous material, a lubricating oil filter packed with cotton waste willbe y, used for purposes of illustration. This filter forms the subjectmatter of copending application Serial No. 97,337, filed concurrentlywith this application.

The filter (Fig. 5) comprises'a'base I0 pro- 10 vided with inlet andoutlet ports to which base is xed tube II, which forms a continuationfor one of said ports. Removably mounted on the base is an invertedcontainer I2 filled with fibrous filtering material I3 which may betightly packed 1,', cotton waste. A wire bail I4 is used to retain thecontainer in place.

When the filtering material I3 becomes clogged with impurities, it isnecessary to' replace container I2 with another similar container filledwith fresh filtering material, but such new container cannot be mountedon base I0 unless a recess is first provided in the material to receivetube II. In order to provide such a recess in the prior art it wasnecessary to locate a man- 2, drel corresponding in size and position tothe size and position of tube II in container I2, and then pack cottonwaste in layers in the container around said mandrel. The space occupiedby the mandrel would provide a recess for the recep- 30 tionl of tubeII. This was a time consuming process.

It was attempted to obviate these difliculties by proceeding in themanner illustrated in Fig. 1. The receptacle I2 is positioned in a standI6 and 3 tightly packed with cotton waste I3. Then it was attempted toprovide a central recess by forcing a rod I1 into the cotton waste. Itwas found to be impossible to do this. The advancing rod caught theadjacent fibers and pushed 40 them forward causing them to pack evenmore tightly, as indicated at I8, and preventing further advance of therod. Tapered and round nosed rods were also tried without success.

The method according to the invention is best shown in Fig. 2. Thecontainer I2 is mounted in stand I6 and packed with cotton waste bysimply taking a wad of cotton waste and forcing it into thecontainer.This, it will be noted, results in a tremendous saving in time over theprior method of carefully inserting the cotton in layers into thecontainer around the central mandrel. To cause better adhesion of thecotton waste to the container, the interior of the container may firstbe coated with varnish, and the 55 cotton waste packed therein while thevarnish is still fresh.

The longitudinal recess in the packed cotton is formed by means of anozzle I9 which may be attached to a source of fluid under pressure(hereafter referred to as air) by means of hose 20. The compressed airissuing from the tip of the nozzle divides the fibers immediately infront of the nozzle, pushing them aside laterally from the axis of thenozzle, making it possible to advance the nozzle into the material. Asthe nozzle advances the compressed air continues to divide the fibers inadvance of the nozzle, opening a path for the nozzle. It has been foundin practice that the best Way to advance the nozzle into the fibrousmaterial is by an intermittent or step-by-step forward motion. Any,attempt to advance the nozzle faster than the'compressed air prepares apath for it does not result in faster progress, and may even delay it.This indicates quite clearly that the fibers are pushed aside by thecompressed air and not by the nozzle itself. As shown in Fig. 2 a nozzlewith a slight taper is preferred, the taper being exaggerated forpurposes of illustration. The opening in the nozzle must be large enoughto supply the. necessary amount of air.

As compared with the prior method of packing the cotton waste around atemporary mandrel which consumed an average of about three minutes percontainer, the present method of filling the container with a wad ofcotton and making a recess therein with the aid lof compressed air takesless than a minute. In practice the container is fastened in a jig,filled with a single wad of cotton waste, and the nozzle is carried in aguide axially of the container, facilitating the insertion of the nozzlein the exact center of the container.

While the method has been illustrated as applied to the preparation of afilter, it is obvious that it may be applied to a wide variety ofpurposes Where it is desired to penetrate a mass of fibrous material.One such application is illustrated in Fig. 6 wherein 22 may be a baleof cotton which it is desired to impregnate with a preservative or abale of hay which is to be impregnated with molasses. The nozzle I9 isadvanced into the interior of the bale with the aid of compressed airsupplied thereto through hose 20. After the desired penetration has beenobtained the desired fluid is forced under pressure into the passagethus made either by using the same nozzle I9 or by means of anothernozzle of any desired construction. I f desired, the fluid which is tobe used for impregnating the fibrous material may also be used insteadof the compressed air to make a path for the advancing nozzle.

Changes in details and specific arrangement of parts may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention, which is to be limited onlyby the scope of the appended claims.

It is claimed and desired to secure by Letters Patent:

1. The method of making a passage through a mass of fibrous materialwhich comprises dividing the fibers by directing a stream of compressedgas into the material by means of a tapered tube with the reduced endforemost and intermittently advancing the tube through the passage thusmade.

2. The method of making a passage through a mass of fibrous materialwhich comprises directing a stream of compressed gas into the materialby means of a tube and successively advancing the tube into the passageas it is formed by an intermittent forward movement.

3. The method of making a recess in a mass of packed waste whichcomprises directing a stream of compressed gas into the material bymeans of a tube and advancing the tube into the material as the gasclears a path therefor and then removing the tube.

4. The method of making an oil filter cartridge which comprises packinga container with a mass of brous filtering material, making a longnarrow recess therein by advancing an open tube into the material whileforcing compressed gas out through the forward end of the tube, and re.-moving the tube.

5. The method of making an oil filter cartridge which comprises packinga container with a mass of fibrous filtering material, making a longnarrow recess therein by advancing an open tube into the material whileforcing compressed'gas out through the forward end of the tube, removingthe tube, and inserting a temporary filler rod into the recess thusmade.

6. The method of making an oil filter cartridge which comprises coatingthe interior of a container with varnish, packing a Wad of fibrousmaterial into the container while the varnish is still fresh, providingan aperture in the material by advancing a hollow tube into the materialand clearing a path therefor by a stream of compressed gas passingthrough said tube, and withdrawing the tube to leave a recess ofpredetermined dimensions Within the material.

7. The method of penetrating fibrous material which comprises directinga stream of compressed gas into the material 'by means of a tube andsuccessively advancing the tube through the space cleared by thecompressed gas.

8. The method of impregnating a package of fibrous material whichcomprises making a passage to the interior of the package by directing astream of compressed gas into the material while inserting a tool intothe passage cleared by said stream of gas, removing the tool andapplying impregnating fluid into the package through the passage thusmade..

RUDOLPH M. BRUESEWITZ.

